Michif (also Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif) is the language of the Métis people of Canada and the northern United States, who are the descendants of First Nations women (mainly Cree, Nakota and Ojibwe) and fur trade workers of European ancestry (mainly French Canadians). Nowadays; Michif is spoken in scattered Métis communities in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada and in North Dakota and Montana in the United States. Michif emerged over two hundred years ago as a mixed language (not to be confused with a creole). The language solidified sometime between 1820 and 1840. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mestizo. ... The Canadian prairies is a vast area of flat sedimentary land that stretches from Ontario and the Canadian Shield to the Canadian Rockies covering much of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta - the Prairie Provinces. ... Motto: Gloriosus et Liber (Latin: Glorious and free) Official languages English and French, per mandate of the Constitution Act 1982 Flower Prairie Crocus Tree White Spruce Bird Great Grey Owl Capital Winnipeg Largest city Winnipeg Lieutenant-Governor John Harvard Premier Gary Doer (NDP) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 14... Motto: Multis E Gentibus Vires (Latin: From many peoples, strength) Official languages English Flower Western Red Lily Tree Paper Birch Bird Sharp-tailed Grouse Capital Regina Largest city Saskatoon Lieutenant-Governor Gordon Barnhart Premier Lorne Calvert (NDP) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 14 6 Area Total  - Land  - Water  (% of... Motto: Ut Incepit Fidelis Sic Permanet (Latin: Loyal she began, loyal she remains) Official languages None Flower White Trillium Tree Eastern White Pine Bird Common Loon Capital Toronto Largest city Toronto Lieutenant-Governor James K. Bartleman Premier Dalton McGuinty (Liberal) Parliamentary representation  - House seats  - Senate seats 106 24 Area Total... An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... A mixed language is a language that arises when two languages are in contact and there is a high degree of bilingualism among speakers. ... Cree is the name for a group of closely-related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 50,000 speakers across Canada, from Alberta to Labrador. ... ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa or Anishinaabemowin in Eastern Ojibwe syllabics) is the third most commonly spoken Native language in Canada (after Cree and Inuktitut), and the fourth most spoken in North America (behind Navajo, Cree, and Inuktitut). ... The Assiniboine language (also Assiniboin, Hohe, or Nakoda) is a Dakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains, spoken by around 200 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mestizo. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The Métis (pronounced MAY tee, IPA: , in French or , in Michif ), also historically known as Bois Brule, Countryborn, or Black Scots, are one of three recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada. ... First Nations is a term of ethnicity used in Canada. ... The Cree are an indigenous people of North America whose people range from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean in both Canada and the United States. ... The Lakota (friends or allies, sometimes also spelled Lakhota) are a Native American tribe, also known as the Sioux (see Names). ... For other uses of Chippewa, see Chippewa (disambiguation). ... An Alberta fur trader in the 1890s. ... French Canadian is a term that has several different connotations. ... Official language(s) English Capital Bismarck Largest city Fargo Area  Ranked 19th  - Total 70,762 sq mi (183,272 km²)  - Width 210 miles (340 km)  - Length 340 miles (545 km)  - % water 2. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A mixed language is a language that arises when two languages are in contact and there is a high degree of bilingualism among speakers. ... A creole language, or just creole, is a well-defined and stable language that originated from a non-trivial combination of two or more languages, typically with many distinctive features that are not inherited from either parent. ...

Michif combines Cree and Canadian French, with some additional borrowing from English and First Nation languages such as Ojibwe and Assiniboine. In general, Michif noun phrase phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax are derived from Canadian French, while verb phrase phonology, lexicon, morphology, and syntax are from a southern variety of Plains Cree. (Plains Cree is a western dialect of Cree.) Articles and adjectives are also Canadian French, but demonstratives are Plains Cree. Cree is the name for a group of closely-related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 50,000 speakers across Canada, from Alberta to Labrador. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... First Nations is the current title used by Canada to describe the various societies of the indigenous peoples, called Native Americans in the U.S. They have also been known as Indians, Native Canadians, Aboriginal Americans, Amer-Indians, or Aboriginals, and are officially called Indians in the Indian Act, which... Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa or Anishinaabemowin in Eastern Ojibwe syllabics) is the third most commonly spoken Native language in Canada (after Cree and Inuktitut), and the fourth most spoken in North America (behind Navajo, Cree, and Inuktitut). ... The Assiniboine language (also Assiniboin, Hohe, or Nakoda) is a Dakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains, spoken by around 200 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly. ... In linguistics, a noun phrase is a phrase whose Head is a noun. ... The vowels of modern (Standard) Arabic and (Israeli) Hebrew from the phonological point of view. ... Look up lexicon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ... For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ... A verb phrase (VP) is a phrase whose head is a verb. ...

The Michif language is unusual (and possibly even unique) among mixed languages, in that, rather than choosing to simplify its grammar, it chose the most complex and demanding elements of the chief languages that went into it. French noun phrases retain lexical gender and adjective agreement; Cree verbs retain much of their polysynthetic structure. This suggests that, instead of haltingly using words from another's tongue, the people who devised Michif were fully fluent in both French and Cree. A mixed language is a language that arises when two languages are in contact and there is a high degree of bilingualism among speakers. ... In linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... Polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i. ...

The number of speakers is estimated at fewer than 1,000; it was probably double or triple this number around the turn of the century but never much higher .

Phonology

Michif combines two separate phonological systems: one for French elements, and one for Cree elements. For instance, /y/, /l/, /r/ and /f/ exist only in French words, whereas preaspirated stops such as /ht/ and /hk/ exist only in Cree words. Only in the stress system there is some Cree influence on French words.

Morphology

Syntax

Noun phrase

Nouns are always accompanied by a French determiner or a possessive. Cree demonstratives can be added to French noun phrases. Adjectives are French (Cree has no adjectives), and as in French they are either pre- or postnominal. Prenominal adjectives agree in gender (like in French), however, postnominal adjectives do not agree in gender (unlike French).

Verb phrase

The verb phrase is that of Plains Cree with little reduction (there is no dubitative or preterit verb forms).

Word order

Michif word order is basically that of Cree (relatively free). However, the more French elements are used, the closer the syntax seems to conform to norms of spoken French.

Lexicon

Nouns: 83-94% French; Cree or Ojibwe, English
Verbs: 88-99% Cree
Question words: Cree
Personal pronouns: Cree
Postpositions: Cree
Prepositions: French
Conjunctions: 55% Cree; 40% French
Numerals: French
Demonstratives: Cree

Language genesis

In languages of mixed ethnicities, the language of the mothers usually provides the grammatical system, and the language of the fathers provides the lexicon. The reasons are following: children know mother’s language better; men are often immigrant, whereas women are native to the region, if the bilingual children need either of their parents’ language to converse with outsiders, it is most likely to be the language of the mothers. Thus, the model of language mixing predicts that Michif should have the Cree grammatical system and the French lexicon. However, Michif has Cree verb phrase and French noun phrase. The explanation lies in the polysynthetic nature of Cree morphology, which is responsible for the unusual distribution of Cree and French elements in Michif.
In Cree verbs can be very complex with up to twenty morphemes, incorporated nouns and unclear boundaries between morphemes. In other words, in Cree verbs it is very difficult to separate grammar from lexicon. As a result, in Michif the grammatical and bound elements are Cree, and the lexical and free elements are French; the verb is totally Cree, because the verb consists only of grammatical and bound element.

See also

• Métis
• Cree language
• Canadian French
• Bungee language
• Chinook Jargon
• List of languages
• List of extinct languages
• List of endangered languages

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mestizo. ... Cree is the name for a group of closely-related Algonquian languages spoken by approximately 50,000 speakers across Canada, from Alberta to Labrador. ... Canadian French is the common term for naming the regional dialects or varieties of French found in Canada. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Chinook Jargon was a trade language (or pidgin) of the Pacific Northwest, which spread quickly up the West Coast from Oregon, through Washington, British Columbia, and as far as Alaska. ... This list of languages is alphabetical by English name. ... This is a list of languages that underwent language death and currently have no native speakers. ... A list of endangered languages (with fewer than 1000 speakers or in rapid decline). ...

Bibliography

• Bakker, Peter. 1997. A language of our own: The genesis of Michif, the mixed Cree-French language of the Canadian Métis. New York, Oxford University Press.

• Bakker,Peter and Robert Papen. 1997. Michif: A mixed language based on Cree and French. In S. Thomason (ed.) Contact languages: A wider perspective. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, p. 295-363.

• Evans, Donna. 1982. "On coexistence and convergence of two phonological systems in Michif." Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session, 26, p. 158-173.

• Papen, Robert. 2003. "Michif: One phonology or two?" In Y. Chung, C. Gillon and R. Wokdak (eds) University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 12, Proceedings of the Eighth Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Language of the Americas, p. 47-58.

• Papen, Robert. 2004. "Michif spelling conventions: Proposal for a unified Michif writing system. In L. Barkwell (ed.) La lawng: Michif peekishkwewin. Winnipeg, MB: Pemmican Publications, p. 29-53.

• Papen, Robert. 2005. Le mitchif: langue franco-crie des Plaines. in A. Valdman, J. Auger & D. Piston-Hatlen (eds). Saint-François, QC: Presses de l'Université Laval, p. 327-347.

• Weaver, Deborah. 1982. Obviation in Michif. Work Papers of the Summer Institute of Linguistics, University of North Dakota Session, 26, p. 174-262.

• Weaver, Deborah. 1983. "The effect of language change and death on obviation in Michif."In W. Cowan (ed.) Actes du Quatorzième Congrès des Algonquinistes. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, p. 261-268.

External links

• Michif Language Lessons
• Learning Michif (Microsoft Word DOC)